Parent Time

Home energy savings really are where the heat is because warming, cooling and hot water account for nearly three-quarters of a house’s energy use. Begin conserving with an energy audit. For $150 to $300, organizations, such as Dartmouth’s Clean Nova Scotia or Manitoba Hydro’s Power Smart in Winnipeg, will travel from your basement to your attic finding ways to improve your home’s efficiency. (Find a qualified energy adviser in your area at oee.nrcan.gc.ca.) The federal government’s Office of Energy Efficiency says, on our own, we can reduce household energy costs by about 15%, but a pro can boost those savings 20 to 300r more. Tracy Chong, spokesperson at GreenSaver, a Toronto non-profit dedicated to residential energy efficiency, says the greatest problem areas are places you can’t see. “Insulate around your doors and windows,” Chong suggests, “before considering replacing those windows.”

Big move: retrofit
“Old buildings are leaky,” says Kim Pressnail, an associate professor at University of Toronto’s department of civil engineering. That’s why your best investment is sealing your home against the outdoors by installing extra insulation or heat-recovery ventilators, and draft-proofing doors and windows. In 2005, Pressnail calculated it would cost roughly $9,260 to modify an existing two-storey, 2,675-square-foot home to a high-efficiency level, but annual energy-cost savings would be $818. That means your investment would pay for itself in 12 years. It’s cheaper still to include the most energy-efficient standards into homes when built, says Pressnail. “If you’re building a new home now, seek out a builder who is constructing lower energy homes and then ask for energy upgrades.” He tagged the extra cost at just over $5,500. Over 25 years, you’ll receive an annual return on investment of 8.8 0.000000or the retrofitted home and 14.70n the newly constructed house.

Small steps
• Use a ceiling fan to cool your room. A standard 60W overhead will use about $1 of electricity monthly, while an air-conditioning unit will cost $26 to $178 per month. A tabletop fan offers even greater savings.

• Install your air conditioner in the shade and make it 5% more efficient. Set it at 25°C instead of 21ºC and save up to a cool 8%.

• Close your south-facing drapes on hot sunny days and save 50n your cooling bill.

• Swimming pools account for up to 600f a home’s summer energy costs, but a solar blanket can reduce heating expenses by up to 20% (and if you lower the water temperature by 3ºC, you’ll save another 20%).

• Insulate the first metre of pipe leading into and out of your hot-water tank as well as any metal hot-water pipes running through unheated spaces in your home.

Originally published in Today's Parent, July 2007